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The Pressure of Being Denise
Thanks to Dr. Frank Ardaiolo, Winthrop University, for the basis for this case (which is slightly
edited here) and to the Center for Academic Integrity (CAI), for making this case available on the
CAI website, http://www.academicintegrity.org/casestudies.asp.
ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT QUANDARY—Read the following and then respond to the
questions at the end. When you are done, form a small group and discuss your ratings.
Try to get your group to agree on which three people have the greatest responsibility.
Denise came from a small, rural town in central South Carolina where her father raised her very
strictly, and it was only with great reluctance that he allowed her to come to Winthrop University
for college. He feared the big and diverse university would corrupt her morals. As he left her on
campus the day the residence halls opened, he warned her of many things including, "If I ever
find out that you've been cheating, I'll be really disappointed and embarrassed.”
Denise loved her dad and wanted to make him proud of her. Her career ambition was to become
a medical doctor and help people. Her first two years of classes went OK and she was making
progress towards obtaining her degree in Biology and had a 3.3 cumulative GPA. While good,
she realized she probably needed higher grades to get into medical school. In September of her
junior year she began dating Larry who was a fellow student in her organic chemistry class. By
late November they were intimate. Denise had never experienced such a demanding class as
organic chemistry and was barely making a C as finals approached. She had even quit her off
campus job in September to devote more time to studying. However, she took advantage of a
credit card solicitation and before she knew it she had over $2000 in debt and no way to pay it.
She had to get a job on campus and easily found one working as a security assistant at nights in
Wofford Hall. All her earnings were devoted to just paying the minimum demanded each month
from her credit card bank. The anxiety caused by her academic course demands, her increasing
debt level from the bank’s mounting interest, and her lack of sleep from her night job began to
push her towards depression as final exams approached.
As the semester was winding down, her organic chemistry professor offered all students in the
class an opportunity for extra credit by writing a short research paper on “foreseeable
breakthroughs in chemistry the next decade.” Denise thought this would be the opportunity she
needed to get a B in the class. However, she found out as the semester began to wind down,
there was just too much going on and she couldn’t find the time to devote to the research paper.
Two nights before the paper was due while Denise was working as a Security Assistant, Susan, a
co-worker at the security desk, suggested she check out a great web site called FREEESSAY.COM. Denise did so and found a paper with the same title in little more than five minutes.
Pressed for time and wanting to avoid plagiarizing she cut the essay from the internet and pasted
it into her word processor to use it only as a guideline for the format of her essay. She then went
on-line to the three sources referenced in the FREE-ESSAY.COM paper and fortunately was able
to read all the sources within a matter of hours directly on her desktop computer. While reading
she tried to paraphrase the wording from the original essay. She also cited the original sources in
her paper, but she never cited FREE-ESSAY.COM
After work that night, Denise went to bed with Larry and mentioned to him how she was able to
get the paper done on-line and asked him if it seemed like plagiarism. Larry replied, “I don’t think
so; besides, you’ve worked so hard you deserve this one break.” On her way to class the next
day to submit the paper, Denise was chatting with Mary, the student who sits next to her in class,
and Denise casually mentioned how she was finally able to get the extra credit paper done.
After class that day, Mary slipped an anonymous note under the professor’s office door telling her
to check Denise’s paper closely. Thus alerted, the professor noticed a particularly well expressed
paragraph and placed it in Turnitin.com, an internet plagiarism site. In .02 seconds, Turnitin
returned 5 hits including FREE-ESSAY.COM and the original source which Denise had found and
referenced in her submitted paper. The professor decided this was a case of academic plagiarism
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where a student presented the ideas or words of another person as one’s own for academic
evaluation without proper acknowledgment. The professor gave Denise an F in the course as an
academic consequence.
Denise maintained she thought she had properly referenced the original sources and requested a
hearing before the University’s Judicial Council comprised of three faculty members and two
students. The Judicial Council heard the case a few days before Denise’s remaining finals began
and decided that Denise had committed academic misconduct by plagiarizing for failing to cite the
FREE-ESSAY.COM assistance. The F grade for the entire organic chemistry course was
therefore posted on her transcript, and she was also placed on disciplinary probation for the next
semester.
Denise knew the F in organic chemistry probably doomed her chances for getting into medical
school. She hesitated to call her dad, knowing how disappointed he would be. She was sad that
she had embarrassed him by being accused of cheating. She got quite upset about all this and
her new disciplinary record. She found it difficult to concentrate on her finals, did poorly, and did
not return to Winthrop after that semester.
Rate each of the characters according to their responsibility for Denise’s departure from
Winthrop. Identify the least responsible as #6 to most responsible being #1.
___________ The professor
___________ Her father
___________ Susan, her co-worker
___________ Denise
___________ Larry, her boyfriend
___________ Mary, her classmate
Briefly respond to the following question (in two or three sentences):
Do you think the consequences Denise experienced were appropriate in this situation?
Why/why not?
DISCUSS YOUR VIEWS WITH YOUR GROUP AND SEE IF YOU CAN AGREE AS TO WHAT
THE APPROPRIATE CONSEQUENCES FOR DENISE SHOULD BE IN THIS SITUATION. TRY
TO GET YOUR GROUP TO AGREE ON WHO THE 3 MOST RESPONSIBLE PEOPLE ARE.
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Please respond to the following questions and hand in
before you leave.
THIS PAGE ONLY
1. I have a better understanding of The College of Saint Rose’s Academic Integrity
policy as a result of this session.
Strongly Agree
Agree
Unsure
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
2. I am less likely to engage in acts of academic dishonesty in the future as a result of
this session.
Strongly Agree
Agree
Unsure
Disagree
Strongly Disagree